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Recent Examples of headsmanSeveral other leading figures of the period ended their days on the executioner’s block, including the unhappy Comte de Chalais, whose headsman bungled the job and ended up frantically chopping away at his screaming victim with a small hatchet.—David A. Bell, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2012 Even if your reality is the headsman’s block!—Helen Shaw, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2021 Two other men, subjects of excellent Holbein drawings in the show, would keep appointments with the headsman.—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2022 Once upon a time, the queen could have sent rebels to the Tower and the headsman’s block, even relatives—especially relatives.—Matt Seaton, The New York Review of Books, 9 Mar. 2021 The British prime minister has assembled a trio of headsmen to sever Britain from the mainland.—Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 22 Mar. 2017
True to form, the court dismissed his arguments as either repetitive or barred by procedural rules that the Legislature and the court have stacked in favor of the executioner.
—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
23 June 2025
True to form, the court dismissed his arguments as either repetitive or barred by procedural rules that the Legislature and the court have stacked in favor of the executioner —even those questions that have never been asked before.
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Orlando Sentinel,
The Orlando Sentinel,
23 June 2025
The death penalty has just been abolished in the United Kingdom, and all the townspeople in Oldham want to know what the second-best hangman in the country has to say about it.
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Luann Gibbs,
The Enquirer,
2 July 2025
But since taking office, the president has been tightening up his definition of freedom like a hangman’s noose.
The murderer had turned the gun on himself and was no longer a threat.
—
Holly Yan,
CNN Money,
1 Aug. 2025
Yet Law & Order never had intimate scenes with murderers like me, like when my mom and aunt Mary Ann came up for extended visits as part of the family-reunion program.
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